Mad As Rabbits
by Jinxing The World
Summary: Set in Victorian Era London, England. Alice Kingsley wants to be more than rich man's wife, so in the pursuit of creating her own fate she finds herself working as a nurse in the infamous asylum, Bedlam (Bethlem). What will become of her as her compassionate heart opens up to unlikely friends and an even more unlikely love. (Alice x Hatter) Rated T.


Here is my new Alice In Wonderland fan-fiction, as promised! Sorry it took me so long to post this, but a lot of work actually went into it... I had some really bad writers block for this thing, but it gave me the chance to do some research. This takes place in Victorian era England, and I did the research to make it somewhat historically accurate. I'm not saying its perfect, but I am saying I worked hard and a hope you enjoy it!

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"Welcome to Bedlam." A rather cross looking red headed nurse sneered as she shoved a clip board into Alice's hands. She quickly told Alice to refer to the papers on the clipboard for her daily assignment, mentioned her own name, Erasabeth, and sarcastically wished Alice "good luck".

Being that she had been raised properly, Alice thanked the woman for her help and walked away quickly, Once she was out of sight and out of earshot, however, the part of her personality that was more akin to a naughty young child made itself known. She bowed with a flourish, rolled her eyes, and finished off her gesture with an over-emphasized, "Thank you your majesty!" She followed this up with some rather unladylike words. She didn't need that woman's sass and superiority complex on her first day working. She was the head nurse, no doubt, but Alice was sure that she outranked her anywhere but here. After all most nurses were members of the lower working class. They were daughters of maids, cooks, servants, farmers, factory workers, and butlers. Alice's father had been a wealthy and highly important goods trader. However regardless of how it would change her treatment, she refused to pull rank. After all getting away from her rank was her reason for being here in the first place.

Alice was odd for a lady of her age. As a member of the upper class she would either be married at this point, or would be enjoying her season. It weren't as if Alice didn't have plenty of suitors. In reality Alice was one of the most eligible, marriageable, and sought after young women in London. Men sent her letters and gifts on a nearly daily basis, and she had received more than one wedding proposal in her time. However she made continuous refusals of any and all male advances due to the fact that they simply surprised and annoyed her.

She was lovely for the age of one-and-twenty, and was in the possession of a quite sizable dowry. Most of the other women of her age rather hated or envied her for her "good luck". They gossiped on for hours about how odd she was to not want to go to balls or marry any of the men who had made her offers and proposals, After all she had offers from Lords, and even ambitious women of Alice's class did not do much better than to marry a lord.

Her lack of interest in such men did not make Alice an unambitious woman, in fact it was quite to the contrary. It was simply that her ambitions led her to want different things. For example she had higher standards than money or looks for the man she intended to marry. She wanted a man who would love her for her heart, and mind, not her money or body. She also wanted the ability to live her own life apart from her husbands. She wanted to have her own job and to make her own money. She saw herself as much more than a simple party planner, hostess, and piece of eye candy for her husband to carry about mindlessly on his arm. She was far too intelligent to want such a thing. She wanted independence. So, to fulfill this need she had gone out and won herself a job. Even as a young woman who, regardless of marital status, would never have to work a day in her life, Alice went out into the world alone and had inserted herself into the workforce.

A loud laugh coming from mere inches behind her stopped Alice's thoughts dead in their tracks. Someone had seen her rather rude gestures. She hoped and prayed that she was not about to lose her job and turned about face to see where the laughter was emanating from.

"You met the bloody big head, no doubt." said the still laughing voice from behind her.

As she turned and finally got a good look at the source of the laughter Alice was both relieved and pleasantly surprised. The man, and source of the laughter, was obviously a patient judging by his dirty white shirt. She nearly sighed in relief, it hadn't been another member of the staff, and therefore she would not be fired on her first day. However her feelings of surprise were for a completely different reason. The reason for her surprise was that she was finding herself looking at the features of the man in question and had found him to be quite handsome. Though his looks were very odd, his face was gaunt, and his skin pale, Alice saw a strange beauty in the man staring back at her. His eyes were soulful and colored with a wild looking deep green color. It was the color of a jungle at twilight, a mysterious but lovely color, especially for one's eyes. She noticed how his gaze seemed to look directly at her and yet straight through her at the same time. She supposed it was a side effect of whatever drug or medication he was on. After all, most of the people here were medicated for some form of mental illness, and it made sense that this strange man would also be drugged to assist in the ills that had led him into the doors of an asylum in the first place.

Alice shifted her eyes down nervously, despite taking on a job in a mental hospital; Alice had never actually met a mad man before. Of course her Aunt Imogen had delusions, but the woman was harmless. She had heard the horror stories of what happened to young women who ran into severely and seriously insane men. They were tales of rape, torture, and murder that she had never truly paid much attention to due to the comfortable cocoon of higher society. She had never had room to fear of such things and though she had heard about it in whispers among drawing rooms, it had never been talked about outright. After all what place did seriousness have in the common babble of upper crust women? It was something for men to speak of while women discussed the daintier topics of fashion and embroidery over cups of tea, so Alice was never truly exposed to the truth of it all.

Glancing at her clip board she read quickly the name "Mirana". She knew that she should have met up with her rounds partner before doing anything else, but her thoughts had gotten away from her. Generally she gave herself very good advice, however she very seldom followed it. Deciding it would be best to buy herself some time, she spoke to the man.

"Excuse me?" She asked, unsure of his meaning.

He laughed once more and repeated, "You must've met the bloody big head."

Alice, still confused spoke to him, voicing her best guess as to what he was speaking of. The head nurse, Erasabeth had red hair and a rather large head for her body, so Alice supposed that maybe this was his meaning. "Do you mean Mademoiselle Crims?" She questioned while using the French term for miss which was quite fashionable to say at the time.

"Aye Lass." He responded in a rich brogue that Alice had not mentioned previously. It was now obvious to her that he was a Scotsman. His voice had a rather melodic quality to it. It drew her in, and she almost smiled, however the unknown kept this reaction at bay.

She was in an asylum. The orange haired man seemed friendly enough, kindly, and harmless, but how was she to know who or what he truly was. They kept serial killers locked up in places like Bethlem. How was she to know whether or not she was safe? He mouth went dry at the thought, and she swallowed in attempts to remedy it, but to no avail. Was this all a mistake? Did an upper-class young woman such as she belong in a place like this?

She heard screams and ramblings of the insane throughout the building, something she had been able to tune out until now. It was a petrifying place to be, and it made her question her very decision to want to be here. She was brave, but could she survive this? It weren't as if she were dainty, but was it possible that the years of soft life among the privileged had made her too soft to handle something like this, even if it was what she truly wanted. She was sure she was turning pale, and she caught the man looking at her with a worried glance. It surprised her. He genuinely seemed to care. He opened his mouth as if to say something to her, but was interrupted.

"Hatter!" Came a woman's voice from behind Alice once again. Turning the other way to see the source of the voice, Alice gave an internal sigh of relief, it was a nurse. A quick look at her name tag made Alice feel further at ease. She was in the right place, she supposed because the name on the tag read the name of her shift-mate Mirana.

"Hatter!" The woman repeated taking a stride forward, forcing Alice to turn once again. "There you are! I feared I had lost you!" The woman smiled and took the mad man by the hand. "You can't just go running off like that." She said, fussing over the man like a mother to a small child. "What on Earth am I going to do with you?"

The man she had called "Hatter" smiled coyly, "Just wanted to meet the new nurse was all." After a moment he turned to Alice and questioned her, smiling as he did so. "You are Alice, aren't you? We've been waiting for an Alice for a very long time you know. Alice's are very… muchy."

Alice smiled, comforted by the fact that her fellow nurse seemed unafraid of the man who Alice realized now, was likely harmless. "Yes, yes I am." She responded smiling back at the man whose eyes seemed to shimmer as he spoke to her.

"Well then." He said moving a bit closer to her and putting out a hand for her to shake, "Welcome to Bedlam, Alice."

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I hope you liked it, please review! I'll try to update ASAP.


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